EDITORIAL

Published: December 14, 2003 7:00 PM

While we abhor human misery, we have to admit to a sense of delight in seeing Saddam Hussein looking filthy and weak, and learning this evil man of many palaces had been spending his time like a rat in a tiny dirt cellar.

Thats the way it ought to be with murderous tyrants.

The capture of Saddam was the main topic of conversation around the Cambridge area Sunday morning, as area residents seemed to feel relieved that justice can now be done, and a country that had been terrorized for years doesnt have to worry that its master of old will ever rise again.

Most of all, we were elated that American forces had achieved something major, something on which the coalition can build.

Our growing competence in intelligence-gathering is shown by the fact that Saddam is locked up.

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The enemy can see that their violence achieves little, while the vast majority of Saddam-despising Iraqis should be more inclined to lend assistance to the coalition.

There remain many dangers, and the way ahead has not become easy. But turning Iraq over to the Iraqis and pulling out U.S. troops should be lees problematic with Saddams return to power now an impossibility.

As for Saddam, the evidence against him is overwhelming, including hundreds of thousands of his victims found buried in mass graves. While nothing that could happen to him could ever make up for what he has done, there was some comfort in seeing what had become of him.